Money saving day ...

I am very happy with me today. I had an uncommon amount of energy -- not quite sure what that was about -- and hit the commissary, Walgreens and Dollar Tree for some deals.

(And now you get to hear about them. That's right. If you stop reading I'll never know but, you know, don't).

I noticed we were out of chicken on my way out the door so I knew that I [possibly would go over my weekly attempted grocery budget today. I figured it's OK since I've been under it for several weeks.

When I hit the chicken case I was VERY excited because Official Chicken Guy was stocking the shelf with pre packaged meat that reach its best buy date today and was therefore marked down at least $1 a lbs. So THAT was fun.

Then I went to Walgreens and got the following:

2 things of shaving cream for Luke
2 things of shaving cream for Amy
1 thing of cough drops for Amy when she is sick
4 cadbury eggs for Luke
1 thing of cetaphil face wash

... for $9!

Anyway, that was exciting.

Now Luke and I are watching Bolt (free Redbox Monday!) ... exciting. And NEXT week we'll get to watch Slumdog Millionaire! I'm so excited.

Too Old

I am officially too old. The Shins, my Most Favorite Group Ever, are playing in Seattle May 4 and 5. ... and, even if my almost two week old infant is behaving itself and giving me decent amounts of sleep ... and even if I feel like hauling myself up there for the Best Thing Ever ...

The show doesn't even START until 9:30 p.m.

And THAT I am too old for. *sniff*
~~~~~~~~~

Luke and I are heading south for a Battalion marriage retreat this weekend. Until that is over, farewell.

No Overshare Here

I'm going to resist the urge to grossly overshare and instead simply say this:

When you eat poptarts all of the time you shouldn't surprised when you 5 lbs in three weeks.

You MUST watch this video: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1098052099896&ref=mf

Patsy wrote and performed the song herself. SO hilarious. And make it to the credits because there is a new song there.

The Good, The Bad and The GET THIS KID OUT OF ME

The good:

Obviously you've been waiting with bated breath for our Army news and I, faithless blogger, have been ignoring you.

I've been kind of busy.

OK, that's a lie. I've just been flat out neglecting you while eating poptarts.

Now, for the news.

We are NOT moving to Kansas (insert great rejoicing) and Luke is deploying with his current unit (more rejoicing ... but wait for the really good stuff ... here it comes) and is only going to be gone 6 months instead of 12 (NOW it's time to really be happy!!!!) before returning here, clearing post, and moving with us to Georgia.

Obviously I know what a huge blessing this is and how lucky I am if that is what actually happens.

But let's focus on what IS happening. I do not have to move anywhere. I do not have to a baby anywhere. I do not have to find housing in Kansas. I do not to do ANYTHING in Kansas. Woohoo!! Instead I get to plan all of my fun "while Luke is gone" travels to places like D.C., Ohio, California, Sardine Lake (!!!!), etc.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The bad:

Luke may be leaving end of May instead of with the rest of the battalion in early July. Obviously I would rather he be here for all the time possible. The "six month deployment" starts counting down in July whether he leaves in late May or not ...
~~~~~~~~~~~~

And now about The Human.

Really, it's all a matter of space ... there isn't any more. And things that are getting squished are squishing other things and the result is ... very painful. As in, can't sleep and want to cry a lot painful.

Not. Cool.

We go to the doctor tomorrow for the 36 week check up. That means we hit 37 weeks next Thursday and therefore the inducement window. Hopefully I'll have some information after that about getting the human out. His company on the inside is no longer welcomed.

Happier Things

Now that I am no longer on the road to death (as in, no more hospital and no more stomach flu, at least for today) I can blog about the good part of my weekend:

Baby shower!

Abigail was wonderful enough to throw me a truly delightful baby shower, complete with the puff painting of baby onesies ... ah yeah, you had forgotten about puff paint. Well Baby B and Abigail are bringing it back. And the result is absolute cuteness. I cant wait to post pictures of some of the products. I have some seriously creative friends.

Baby showers are also good for lots of cool swag I would've never bought myself, such as truly impressive pile of adorable clothing and a monkey backpack/baby leash. I seriously have the greatest friends.

The only thing that could possibly make such weekend fun better (let's go ahead and delete Saturday night through early this morning from our memories and assume the weekend was only pleasant) is ANOTHER baby shower tonight, courtesy of my church friends. I'm excited!
~~~~~~~~~

Sounds like we may be getting our Army News Friday. So stay tuned for that. The last time they had a lunch meeting on the subject it turned into an all afternoon meeting and I made the big fat mistake of sitting by my phone waiting for results for hours on end with no luck, thanks to the surprise length. I'll obviously not be making that mistake again. In fact, if said meeting is The Great Reveal I'll probably need to find a way to distract myself for four hours so I do not lolligag about waiting for results. I'm open to suggestions.

Now: Luke has ordered me to "chill out" all day long in the name of a full recovery. So I'm going to kick back, watch the rest of Alias, play with the weekend's coupons and get ready for tonight's baby shower.

Whoa, That Sucked

I'm not the ideal patient. I like to blow off medical advice and blame things like bad parking on my high blood pressure. I mean, that's an obvious explanation so I'm really not backing down from it, btw.

However when they told me last week that I also have several other preeclampsia symptoms I started listening a little more. I mean, seizures, organ failure, death ... all of these are things that I feel should be taken seriously.


So when they told me to come in if I have a "headache that does not go away with tylonel" I thought "well I get a lot of headaches and tylonel doesnt work worth crap, but Ok." And when I got said headache Saturday afternoon and took said tylonel and it did not go away ... even though I REALLY wanted to go to bed and see if it was gone this morning and THEN deal with it ... I went in.

Of course they couldn't get it to go away completely either. And rather than lying and saying "its gone" when I wanted to go home, I said "its still kind of there" ... and therefore ended up staying way longer than planned. ... aka over night!

It's truly ironic that hospitals are places one can't sleep. It's also ironic that I managed to pick up Lord only knows what kind of evil bug there, and officially broke my no barf streak this afternoon after they let me go home. Not cool.

All in all this hospital fun included a 12 hour urine test, an IV that did NOT feel good coming in or going out, weird stomach pain that Luke claimed was thanks to the IV saline and I am now contributing to the evil flu and sleeping off and on for two hours at a time in between nurses waking me up and the remnants of the IV getting caught on the blanket. Man that did not feel good.

I no longer feel like dying from the Evil Disease, so that's good ... but I also still feel like utter and complete crap, despite sleeping most of the day. Here's hoping I wake up all better tomorrow and don't have to cancel baby shower number two tomorrow night. Sigh.

The Doggie

Luke and I are puppy sitting part of this week ... just until tomorrow actually. We've had Daisy since Wednesday.

And she is absolutely adorable. She is a Shih Tzu, and seriously the smartest one I've ever run into. Let's be honest folks, this dogs are usually long on poofiness, short on brains.

Not so much with Daisy. She's got the poofiness, but also the brain, which I appreciate. Seriously, I absolutely love this dog!

I also think Luke is sold, though admitting it in public compromises his machoness (understandable, considering the poofiness). He actually SAID "we could get a dog like this after the baby is a little older." (as in, more than just unborn). Haha. Victory is mine!

I'm hoping by "dog like this" he means "possibly a scottish terrier," since I'm not willing to risk the poofiness/lack of brain scenario on this particular breed.
~~~~~~~~~~

Baby shower today! with the Army friends, and one Monday! with church friends. Obviously, I'm excited.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Luke got some potential Army news Thursday and should have the actual news at some point next week.

Currently: we are moving to Kansas for three months
Next week: who knows?

Well THAT Wasn't Expected

This week I was supposed to go to the clinic every day to have my blood pressure checked. It's been high since pregnancy check up number one. Without fail my BP is high at the first read after walking in the door and and high normal on the second read. OK, that's not quite without fail ... two times it's been high normal the first time and that's it.

Meanwhile the doctors were calling me "at risk for preeclampsia," a pregnancy complication characterized by high blood pressure and a variety of other symptoms that result in swelling and the need for getting the baby out early, usually no later than 37 to 39 weeks into the pregnancy.

I completely blew this off. I mean, with the terrible parking situation at the hospital and the fact that they always take my blood pressure immediately after getting weighed (I mean, obviously this is a recipe for stressing me out) why WOULDN'T I have high blood pressure?! Seeeeriously.

That was until yesterday. I waltz into the clinic (and really I was waltzing because I didn't even have to look for a parking space ... but I was in a hurry because I had groceries in the car and I wanted to go home so I could go to the gym ... so really I was just as stressed as normal) and they take my blood pressure.

... Normal! The first time EVER.

But that apparently did not matter. Late last week I participated in the World's Most Annoying Lab Test and at the risk of overshare (and in the desire to avoid it) I'll just say that it's a 24 hour urine test and not go into any greater detail.

Said test showed I have a high protein count in my urine -- a sign that ye olde kidneys are not really doing their thing. In fact, it was enough of a jump from the original test (that showed what I "normally" have) to really freak the doctor out, awesome BP yesterday morning notwithstanding.

So they sent me trotting (er... waddling ... whatev) upstairs to what ammounts to the labor and delivery emergency room for a ton o' tests, basically telling me that if said tests were as shocking as the urine test, they were going to take the baby out ... right then. As in, yesterday morning, and groceries sitting in my car didn't seem to matter.

I'm just going to fastforward to the end of the story, because obviously I didnt have a baby and you've already figured that out. Basically, all of those other tests were normal and I consistently had the lowest blood pressure ever over two hours time. Crazy!

But they don't seem to care about that. This high protein business is enough to sink a person and their normal pregnancy, apparently. So after all of that freaking out they aren't making me do bed rest, and they aren't making me give up the human growing just yet, but I do have to go into the doctor twice a week for a 20 minute test. If that shows the baby is stressed at all or my blood pressure is way up, who knows what will happen.

Now the entire time I was in said emergency room, mind you without even my trusty nalgene to keep me company, I was thinking. Thinking about the fact that I wish I had my ipod with me. Thinking about the fact that I don't have a hospital bag packed. ... you know, thinking in general.

Next time Im taking the ipod. And you better bet I packed the bag.
~~~~~~

BTW that wasn't the only interesting thing that happened yesterday, but I'm still mulling the second over so you're just going to have to wait. Hint: I got some blog "fan mail." Just you wait.

Absence makes the heart ...

It is SO nice to have Luke home. It isn't until he gets back that I realize how truly lonely I am without him. Like I said, good thing I'm getting a new human before he leaves again, or I would DEFINITELY need a puppy.

His coming back is not without its challenges. You try spending a month apart from your husband or someone you love, thinking about them a lot. This inevitably results in soul searching. And that inevitably results in some very hard, but necessary conversations.

Sigh.

Yet I love him more than ever. Could it be that's what true love really is ... that you don't love someone in spite of their faults, you love them because of their faults? Don't know.

Good Day

Even though I didn't sleep well last night (and let's not that's even WITH sleeping aide ... which I took because I knew I was too excited to sleep well. Blah) today is a Good Day.

Reasons:

-- Massage and facial. Booooooy that was wonderful. A massage is always worth every single penny.
-- My delicious smoothie. ... which I just made and ate and it really was wonderful.
-- Cleaning. Luke is coming home tonight and in preperation I get to clean. I LOVE cleaning with a reason.
-- Making a pie. Again, for Luke. But I do love to bake.
-- Luke! You may have noticed a theme here ... he gets home this evening at 7:30 p.m. and I am Very Excited.

Pancakes?

Just came from the pregnant person clinic where I learned the very important news that I gained just about 2 lbs in the last five weeks. That's right! I am that kind of awesome. My goal was to gain no more than 2.5 and I thought surely all of those pancakes and poptarts would take their toll ... but no! Hahaha! I am victorious!

Unfortunately I am not so victorious at willing my blood pressure to be low or at least on the low side of normal. I got there early, breathed slow cleansing breathes, found good parking without a problem, had them weigh me after my blood pressure ... all of the things that worked last time. But no dice. It was still high to the highish side of normal.

This may be a blessing in disguise, though. If my blood pressure is high now, it will likely be high for the rest of the pregnancy ... and if it is they will likely insist on inducing me between 37 and 39 weeks. I would be annoyed by this, except that Luke could deploy in early May leaving it very up in the air whether, if left to come on his own good time, Baby B would even be here.

And let me tell you there is NO way that I am having a baby without Luke there. Not a chance. And so if they make him come earlier, and that earlier is before Luke deploys, then all things considered I'm a happy camper.

Also excellent news: labor and delivery suggests you bring your favorite dvds and cds to the delivery room for entertainment during the labor and recovery process. Seasons of Friends while giving birth? Heck yes!

Oh No You Didn't

Just called the spa I'm going to tomorrow for my Vday massage and facial gift. ... which I am SO excited about, by the way.

"Hi, my name is Amy, I just want to confirm my appointment for tomorrow."

"Hm ... ummm ... hmmm ...well you're not on the schedule..."

Excuse me?? I called them at least two weeks ago after I made an online appointment and they failed to call me to confirm, talked to the rep who didnt see the appointment in the email but helped me anyway, made the appointment, had a long convo with the rep, gave her my credit card number, etc. ... and so on. But I'm not on the sched?!

Good thing they were able to take me anyway, lest they experience the wrath of one pregnant woman who is VERY excited about her massage and facial. Boy.

Information I Won't Like

It's not like I didn't already KNOW all of that information ... it's that when it's said withh such finality, it seems more real, even though it's not.

What I mean by all of this is, we still don't know anything. But Luke did say something today like "I could be leaving in early May."

Which, you know, was not new information. But when he SAYS it ... yeah. It seems like new information.

And therefore I am rather upset. And tired. And I don't feel good. And I kind of want to curl up in the fetal position on my bed.

And really, it's because of the whole baby thing. Because if he leaves in early May and the baby is due in late April maybe the baby will not be here yet ... and I really, REALLY cannot push a giant human out of my person without him there. I simply canNOT do it. And that's upsetting.
~~~~~~~~~

I did get to talk to Luke for over an hour today. And he's still planning on coming back Thursday.

Sigh.

Seeing is Believing

I talked to Luke for quite a while today, mostly because his phone had reception as he was driving to some different part of southern California where his phone does work. Crazy. I probably talked to him for about an hour total. He may be able to call again tomorrow.

And that is exciting.

What is even more exciting is that he thinks he'll be home by Thursday evening. Woohoo!

But this is where the seeing thing comes in. Generally speaking, I'm all about blind faith. But when it comes to the Army I take back that possibly completely. When it comes to the Army I must not only see to believe, it must actually happen... and only then will I be like "yup, this is happening."

This is even MORE true for what the Army is doing with our lives than it is for the question of what day they send Luke home this week. While I would love to tell you right now "we will for sure find out our fate on March 11," like they say we will, I'm not going to say that. Instead this is what you get:

The Army CLAIMS that they will be releasing information on our fate March 11. They CLAIM that information will tell us whether or not we are being sent somewhere crazy and stupid, like Kansas, or staying here and deploying with 5th Brigade.

This skepticism is necessary for my sanity and, in part, yours. Why? Because if I'm going insane I'm going to send some of my crazy your way and you're going to have to deal with it. That's right, you. Yes, you.